Diary of a Megalomaniac
by Johan - Master of the Quill
Summary: Zuko finds a diary documenting the mysterious history of the illustrious Admiral Zhao. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

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This story explores the history of the great Admiral Zhao through his eyes. There will be plenty more chapters. Promise!**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything in the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender

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Diary of a Megalomaniac

Chapter 1

The ceiling collapsed and the sunshine burst through like a beam of reflected light. Tiny flecks of illuminated dust floated through the beam, visible for the first time in a long while. It had been many years since this shack had been buried beneath the Earth, the victim of an Earth Nation attack, the old island retreat of the illustrious Admiral Zhao.

Tightly woven rope fell through the breach, forcing the minute floating dust to scatter suddenly, for the intruder had arrived. Sliding down the long rope was the golden eyed, bushy haired, scar faced Prince Zuko. It had been his plan for some time to tie up loose ends and the history of Admiral Zhao was one knot that needed fastening. And so the honourable Prince Zuko, dressed in a black and red robe, commenced his search for that thing, that item that would give him clues to Zhao's mysterious past.

The clutter in this ancient place was immense. Scroll upon scroll upon ink upon boxes and bottles and mouldy bread; the litter was disgraceful and the stench unbearable. Zuko began rifling through the scrolls and the boxes, searching, thinking, wondering. And then he spotted a desk with piles of scrolls upon it. He lit up his index finger and made his way towards the desk, a strange feeling coming over him, like how a child in the darkness feels, all alone, the sense that something bad is about to jump out and grab you. But these scrolls, this discarded pile; perhaps they were his light in the darkness.

"No…no…no", Zuko ranted as the scrolls shifted and scrunched beneath his fingers. "No…no…no…AH!! Where is it, Zhao? Where did you hide your secrets"?

Zuko felt the anger boil up inside him, old hatred resurfaced like a ghostly ship. Zhao's arrogant snigger wrestled with his brain from beyond the grave. This momentary lapse in sanity, however, altered when Zuko spotted a small bin filled with yet more scrolls, bound in the finest gold string. Zuko snatched up the bin and noticed that each scroll had a special symbol which Zuko, fortunately, recognised. Good old Uncle Iroh forced Zuko to study ancient fire nation calligraphy during his search for the Avatar, and it had appeared Uncle's wisdom had come good again. Each symbol represented a number and so Zuko simply, but steadily, pulled scroll number one out of the bin as carefully as a fine glass statuette. He stripped the scroll of it's fine gold string and unrolled the scroll. Zuko closed his eyes and with a slow intake of breathe and with a slow discharge of breathe he began to read the ancient scripture.

This is the manuscript of Admiral Zhao. My entire career has been documented here. My conquests, my victories; if you're reading this you know more about my death than I do.

The furthest back I can remember that actually holds any importance is my first lesson with General Jeong Jeong. Before that day I had the utmost respect for the man. He was a great commander, a great firebender, but that day I realized he is nothing but a retched fool, a stain on the great Fire Nation.

What an incredible oaf that man truly is. I recall our first excursion. I thought that he would finally trust me enough to permit the use of fire, I had, after all, excelled whilst training in the Fire Nation Academy. I could not believe it when asked me to stand on the top of a grassy hill to breathe. "Widen your stance", he told me, "focus on your breathing". I already knew how to breathe, I'd be doing it since birth. I wanted to know how to destroy an entire army in one blast like he did in his famous victory at Aspho Plain, but it appeared the fool was completely unwilling.

In the days and weeks to come, I continued to resent the fool. What he was teaching me was nothing new. He said I lacked discipline, that I must learn discipline in order learn the art. But fire itself is undisciplined, my style is an extension of fire, I am the flame. But he did not want to hear such things. The closed minded buffoon still grasped onto the old ways, the ways of the dragon, the pathetic ways. Only a pathetic man would cling to such pathetic ways and this is what I will forever think of Jeong Jeong, he will always be a pathetic old fart.

3 years passed. I must admit that the old man was not without his uses. The fact I trained under him meant that I would be able to enter any unit I wanted. I would probably be promoted faster than the good Prince Iroh; and my assumption proved to be truth. He did try to teach some advanced techniques, but all was completely useless. Most of the time I trained myself. For an entire year, we would only practise at night, he said it would help me when fighting in my enemies element. Such a fool he was. Jeong Jeong was merely an obstacle in the path of my ultimate goal.

Zuko was overjoyed. A great big puzzle piece had landed right in his lap, a fiery puzzle piece. And so Zuko set that scroll aside, unrolled the scroll marked: two, and began to read…

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Please Review 


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm really happy with the way this chapter turned out, I hope you all are too.**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender

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Chapter 2

With Jeong Jeong's sudden waning health, our pointless encounters became less and less frequent. This didn't affect me in the slightest, though I chose to suggest it was when I was fortunate enough to receive a rare visit. The truth was I could tell Jeong Jeong had lost faith in me, as I had lost faith in. He had become less aggressive over time which could be seen as an increase in his appreciation for me as a student, but an intelligent man can recognise that he hated me, his eyes would fill with disgust every time I sarcastically asked him a question; I of course already new answer. So when I learned of his defection, I was overcome with joy; I had almost forgotten what that felt like.

A fire runner came to me in the dead night, early in to the fourth year of my training, a term I use loosely to refer to my time with the old man. He had been sent by Colonel Rozun of the Shimmering Isles insisting that he had heard whispers of my progress. The runner asked me what I thought of the good general and I told him the absolute truth, that Jeong Jeong was dirty old feckless smear on the good name of the fire nation, a feeble and backwards minded fossil that had no place in the modern army. The runner smiled and offered me a fine job, the position of Jeong Jeong's fatal facilitator. It seemed the ancient freak had been a very bad boy; his journal had been discovered and inappropriate things had been written in it. Naturally I accepted in a professional manner, but inside the fire coursed through my veins and I struggled to hide my intense pleasure and excitement.

The runner left me in a unique position, a once in a life time opportunity to be remembered throughout history as the finisher of a dirty betrayer. The walk from my tent to his lowly hut felt incredible. For the first time in my life, I could really sense the future melting into my vision, like wax dripping down the side of a lit candle. All my ambitions suddenly seemed brighter, my future glowing. I stepped into his hut and stared as he meditated. My lips curled into a smirk, a smirk of true meaning. I said at the top of my voice, "Master Jeong Jeong, you are a traitor of the fire nation, I have been instructed by Colonel Rozun to use any means necessary to apprehend you". I lied to Jeong Jeong at that moment, I had no plans to arrest him, only to finish him, become his executioner, those were my orders and he probably knew it. I shifted my feet and carefully stiffened my hands forming a stance I had invented myself and said, "it is time for you to come with me, old man".

At first, the fool did not move, did not speak. Perhaps I had shocked him, filled him with fear, but then he stood up. I had never seen him move so fast. He turned and gazed at me and I remember exactly what he told me. The old man said- SQUAWK!!!

Suddenly, Zuko fell back onto the ground with a bone crunching thud. He was caught completely unaware by a stray messenger hawk that had hid itself down in the shadows of the shack. The hawk frantically flapped it's wings, Zuko huddled on the ground, protecting his head, protecting scroll number two. The anarchy quickly ceased as the hawk screamed the loudest cry Zuko had ever heard, lifting his head up for moment to catch a glimpse of the hawk's tail as it soared through the gash in the ceiling, forcing the flecks of dust to scatter like disturbed ants before they returned to simply float through the sunlight.

A single hawk's feather floated carelessly down through the hole, floundering downwards dreamily, loosely, swaying from left to right, right to left, before settling gently onto a bed of dust and debris. Zuko rose to his feet and took a deep, deep breath, calming himself before returning to the scroll, losing himself to it's words once again, re-entering Zhao's history.

The old man said, "So, you finally found the courage to attack me, Zhao, how brave of you, how very brave". Jeong Jeong was, taunting me, applauding me sarcastically. His arrogance, his indifference; it enraged me.

"Don't you dare act so conceited you old mess", I replied, my rage increasing, "I will take you down with a single blast".

"We shall see". With that three word sentence, he launched a ball of fire from his fist, but not at me, no, at the roof of his hut. Almost instantly, the entire hut burst into flames. I leapt backwards, slipping into a pond, narrowly avoiding critical burns. I rose from the water, firing blast after blast from my raging fists, but each fire ball lacked the ferocity it should, the water blocking my true ability. I soon came to my senses and ran to the fire, attempting to put the flames out, the embers charring my skin, this was no ordinary blaze.

After an hour of careful fire fighting, the inferno was no more. His body was no where to be found. My immediate thought was that he had perished in his own blaze, completely charred, but suddenly, I was overcome with doubt. He may have been an outdated fool, but he was a clever fool. Perhaps he had escaped. This doubt also existed in the Colonel. He was dissatisfied with me, told me to remove myself from his sight, told me that as long as he played a part in the army, I would never find myself there. He died 3 days after our encounter, the final laugh was mine. I would later discover that my old Master did survive, but the next time we met, I would be ready for his dirty tricks.

Zuko set the scroll down and let out a long sigh. He rubbed his face and put scroll number 2 on the floor. Another sigh and he took the third scroll out of the bin, unravelled it from it's golden binding and began to read once more…

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Please R&R 


	3. NonChapter

Hi, this Johan – Master of the Quill

Hi, this Johan – Master of the Quill. Sorry, this isn't a new chapter; I've been trying to cobble together a new chapter for months now. So far, obviously, I haven't been able to. I've got so many ideas for where Zhao goes in the next chapter that I'm finding it difficult writing. Basically, he'll end up in the same place no matter what: kinda like a video game that tells you that the decisions you make directly affect the path of the game, but it doesn't actually affect the ending. So I'm gonna come clean about what this Non-Chapter is all about: I've hit a snag and I need your help to figure out where Zhao is going next.

There are two ideas,

He is reassigned after returning

He is a laughing stock and exiled from the fire nation for his failure, sort of a scapegoat for Jeong Jeong

But that's not all. For the two options I have sub-options of where these events will take place, and please it is very important. Where he is affects what he does and who he meets; I've worked this all out in my head but I am unsure which to choose or how to write it because I have so many options. So here we go,

1a) Reassigned to guard the Royal Palace

1b) A guard on Ember Island

1c) A guard on the Boiling Rock

1d) Reassigned to serve in a legion near the Desert

Now option number two,

2a) Exiled to the Swamp

2b) Exiled to the Desert

2c) Takes refuge in an Air Temple

I desperately need your help on this one. Leave your favourite choice in a review of the story. The popular will be the next REAL chapter. Where I take the story next is in your hands…


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